Elderly man killed by train in Ramle

An elderly man was killed Tuesday when he tried to cross a railroad track in Ramle driving a small motorized cart and was hit by a passing train.

“The barriers had gone down and the cars were standing still” at the intersection next to the location of the incident, according to Israel Railways deputy director general for safety Udi Kaplanski.

But the cart didn’t cross the railway tracks at the marked intersection, he added. It “was being driven against the direction of traffic on a completely empty road, and entered the area of the tracks from a side that did not have a barrier.”

The man’s name or age were not immediately available from police or safety officials.

The incident follows closely on two other safety incidents in recent months.

A passenger train killed 14 camels near the Negev town of Segev Shalom in December.

No passengers were hurt, and police said the camels had been loitering on the tracks unsupervised at night.

In July, one person suffered moderate head trauma when a train crashed into his car south of Haifa.